An Affiliate Marketer’s Guide To Advertising on Reddit

Affiliate marketing isn’t a licence to print money overnight, and as an affiliate you’re committed to growing your audience through every avenue available to you. In 2015, one of the most direct routes to a large number of people has to be Reddit.

The self-styled ‘front page of the internet’, Reddit resembles a wiki generated by an espresso fiend. In a nutshell, it’s an online community where members post links to content such as blog posts, news items, pictures and videos, and their fellow members vote or comment on them. Voting outcomes determine the movement of links in the overall hierarchy.

It sounds like a recipe for anarchy, but there is considerable method in the madness. And with 174 million visitors to the site every month, affiliate marketers who aren’t Reddit-savvy would be well advised to wise up fast.

Why Advertise on Reddit?

It’s Targeted

Beyond its chaotic and fast-moving front page, Reddit offers you the chance to make contact with a pre-selected market for your niche. On the official blog, Reddit is described as ‘a platform for creating communities’, and in this it has been astonishingly successful. The site consists of thousands of ‘subreddits’ – communities established around shared interests.

Subreddits are effectively handpicked audiences for affiliate marketing. At the time of writing, themes cover everything from ‘Aww’ to Zombies. It’s not necessary to wade through all the general content every time you want to reach your market: you can customise Reddit so that when you go to the site, you’re only shown the subreddits of direct interest to you. And of course, if a subreddit doesn’t already exist for your niche, you can go ahead and create one.

It’s Low-Cost

Affiliate marketing is a long tail business, so the most useful knack a successful affiliate can develop is making money with little outlay. Reddit enables users to create a buzz for free by connecting members of subreddits with the content they’re looking for. For extra features – like access to a larger number of subreddits – you can join Reddit’s premium programme for $3.99 a month or $29.99 for a year.

It’s Interactive

The capability for posting threaded comments is potentially one of Reddit’s most exciting tools for affiliate marketers. In many subreddits, vibrant debates and conversations take place, giving advertisers a golden opportunity to interact directly with their customers. For example, one of the most interesting subreddits is, ‘IamA’ in which various professionals or individuals with particular experience declare their credentials and invite members to ‘AMA’ (ask me anything). Imagine how you could use this interactivity to get to know your audience.

Getting Started With Reddit

Create Your Account

The first step in getting started with Reddit is to create an account. This process really does take a matter of seconds, after which you’ll be entitled to make submissions. But before you jump in feet first, it’s a great idea to spend some time as a lurker, getting to know the terminology, the way things work and how people relate on the platform.

Find Your Audience

Next, track down the subreddits that most closely match your target audience, then subscribe to them. Once again, it’s well worth spending a little time getting to know your fellow members before you let them get to know you. This will enable you to craft eye-catching titles for your posts.

When you start to make submissions, remember that on Reddit, as elsewhere on the web, content is still king. Observe this tenet and your posts will be more likely to attract notice and receive upvotes. And of course, as in any conversation, quality interaction begets quality interaction.

Get Your Timing Right

Because the popularity of your submissions to Reddit – and therefore the number of visitors you attract to your site – is determined by voting, it’s vital to time your posts to coincide with their peak period. A 2013 BuzzFeed article reported that the best time to post on Reddit was 7pm on Mondays, and the worst time is during the graveyard hours of midnight and 6am. However, things do change, so you may want to check out the latest analyses on the ‘Data is beautiful’ subreddit.